Confederate deception with Trains

[USS ALASKA]

Sirs, in the Battle of Lynchburg in 1864...

"During the night of the 17th, a yard engine, with box cars attached, was run up and down the Southside Railroad, making as much noise as possible, and thus induced Hunter to believe and to report that Early was being rapidly reinforced."

Source - Charles Minor Blackford, Campaign and Battle of Lynchburg (Lynchburg: JP Bell Press,
1901), 22.

Did this really happen?

Thanks for the help,
USS ALASKA

 

[DaveBrt]

Sirs, in the Battle of Lynchburg in 1864...

"During the night of the 17th, a yard engine, with box cars attached, was run up and down the Southside Railroad, making as much noise as possible, and thus induced Hunter to believe and to report that Early was being rapidly reinforced."

Source - Charles Minor Blackford, Campaign and Battle of Lynchburg (Lynchburg: JP Bell Press,
1901), 22.

Did this really happen?

Thanks for the help,
USS ALASKA

The official Lynchburg web site says it did -- for what that is worth.

 

[NedBaldwin]

https://digitalshowcase.lynchburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=utcp

 

[USS ALASKA]

https://digitalshowcase.lynchburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=utcp

Indeed sir, that is the article I stumbled upon that got me thinking about the question.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[DaveBrt]

Indeed sir, that is the article I stumbled upon that got me thinking about the question.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

The railroad documents do not show the ruse. The one most likely to have shown the action was the Virginia & Tennessee RR annual report, as of July 1, 1864. The Superintendent's report mentions the Union destruction on that road and the battle at Lynchburg, but does not mention use of his rolling stock in the ruse.

This possibility of "remembering" events many years after the war, when they do not show up in period documents, is the reason I have limited my site to the documents of the day, not memories.

 

[UCVRelics]

Gen Beauregard did the same thing at Corinth. He used the RR to take out the wounded, the guns and supplies and when the train made its return trip for more, they would blow the whistle, crank up the band to make the yankees think the CS Army was being reinforced. It bought him enough time to get everything out.

 

[USS ALASKA]

This possibility of "remembering" events many years after the war, when they do not show up in period documents, is the reason I have limited my site to the documents of the day, not memories.

Ah, the old 'source document' requirement...gets in the way of so many great stories...like that story of Confederates moving a bunch of locomotives overland without rails!?! Right, like that really happened...

Cheers!
USS ALASKA

 

[DaveBrt]

Ah, the old 'source document' requirement...gets in the way of so many great stories...like that story of Confederates moving a bunch of locomotives overland without rails!?! Right, like that really happened...

Cheers!
USS ALASKA

Yeah!! But I've GOT the documents!!

 

[USS ALASKA]

Yeah!! But I've GOT the documents!

Oh come on - admit it! You Shelby Foote'd the whole story...

(Yes! He shoots and scores for the cross-thread reference points! Bonus!)


USS ALASKA

 

[Lubliner]

This ruse also took place in North Carolina from what I have read. And I heard it was done more than once in Mississippi.
Lubliner.